


Festival of Lights

by novaband



Category: Bandstand - Oberacker/Oberacker & Taylor
Genre: & Julia is a patient wife, Donny is Jewish™️, F/M, the Hanukkah fic no one asked for
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2018-12-02
Packaged: 2019-09-05 23:07:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16820278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/novaband/pseuds/novaband
Summary: Julia found art in the way Donny baked.





	Festival of Lights

Julia Trojan had never been a horrible cook by any measure. She could bake a crêpe with ease and navigated her way through cookbooks without causing anything to burn . . . and didn't spill her spices like her mother. In fact, if she didn't have flour on her nose at least once in a week, there was something dreadfully wrong in the Novitski household. Even still, there were some recipes she couldn't follow.

That was why Donny, a few hours before sunset, could be found kneading bread dough and snickering at the flour that coated his wife's apron as she put the finishing touches on the cinnamon apple sauce that she had been tasked with. It was best to leave his traditions to him, in the end, amidst the sugary smell of apples and the fresh scent of roasted brussel sprouts that Julia had set aside to keep them warm for their expected dinner guests.

"How do you braid it, again?" His head turned to see Julia's flour-spotted cheeks, blue eyes patiently looking over his shoulder. Donny divided the dough into three sections, moving to the side so that they could both be equally in front of the wooden bread board. He kissed her cheek, avoiding the flour, and took her hands into his with all the care in the world.

"I can teach you," Donny offered, receiving an eager nod of the head from the soprano as she briefly took her hands away to coat them in flour.

For the next half an hour, he showed her how to braid the challah, adding more flour to the dough to keep it from sticking as they worked together to braid it. It didn't come out as perfectly as Julia had hoped, which made her expression turn to one of dismay at the prospect of ruining a tradition of his. Donny quieted her fears by twisting the braid into a circle, hiding all of its imperfections away.

"It takes practice . . . it looks better than when my mama first tried to teach me," He said, a reassuring smile gracing his features and making the corners of his eyes crinkle with delight. He coated the bread with egg yolk, gesturing to the small bowl of poppy seeds resting on the counter.

"Will you do the honors, darlin'?"

Julia laughed, sprinkling the seeds over the bread and watching him carefully put it into the oven. She didn't expect much more than that, until his strong arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her into a joyful jitterbug across the powdered kitchen floor. They erupted into a fit of giggles once they were done, resting their foreheads against each other and recovering from how breathless they had been rendered.

Two hours later, their house would be filled with veterans drunk on champagne with June and Oliver leading a chorus of praises when it came to the food. Julia would spread apple sauce over her slice of challah, Nick would make a handful of crass jokes at the table, and the snow would blanket their rose bush.

Donny hadn't been able to celebrate the holiday since his mother had passed, not effectively. Not in the way he would have liked. He'd look around the table and see smiling faces, all varying when it came to their specified religious beliefs, and wouldn't be able to do anything but smile. It wasn't a perfect Hanukkah dinner according to everyone else . . . but to him? It was better than that.

**Author's Note:**

> This is possibly one of my favorite headcanons to explore and I refuse to believe that Julia would let anything come between her and Donny, differing religious beliefs included. Also . . . the band is their family, through & through.


End file.
